The Amazon Buy Box - 10 Proven Strategies To Win

Do you know over 85% of all Amazon sales occur using Amazon’s buy box? One of the reasons why most of the sales go through the buy box is due to the increase in smartphone users. Consequently, if your product’s detail page doesn’t have a buy box, the probability of making a sale is pretty vague.

Needless to say, this small “Add to basket” button has become enormously important. Grabbing the Amazon Buy Box is not as hard as it seems, let us guide you through the benefits of buying the box to winning it, let’s get started!!

What Is Amazon Buy Box?

When a customer types for the product he is looking for, on the detail page the product appears with a yellow “Add to Cart” or “Add to Basket” on the right side of the page; that button in the Amazon buy box lets shoppers make an instant purchase. Each product on Amazon has a different detail page, that includes different sellers selling that product, when a user clicks on the “Add to cart” button, they are buying from one seller and that seller is the buy box winner.

Amazon algorithm controls whose product shows up in that box. So it conveys to your customers that you are recommended by Amazon and can be trusted to provide top-tier service. Every seller strives to meet the standards, while the algorithm is programmed to choose the sellers based on factors such as product availability, fulfillment method, item condition, and of course customer service!

Why Winning This “Magical Box” Is Essential?

As mobile shopping is gaining popularity, owning the buy box increases your chances of making a sale, nearly all shoppers purchase a buy box as that’s the first “call-to-action” shoppers see. So if your product does not have a Buy Box, please consult your Amazon Seller Consultant immediately.

Does Every Product Have A Buy Box?

The answer is NO. While most of the listings do have a buy box, there are a few instances, where the listing may not have it.

1. If the only seller offering that product on Amazon doesn’t qualify for a buy box, then the box will not be present.

2. If all of the sellers have listed the product at a price that is higher or lower than the average sales price of the product.

How To Check If You Are Eligible For The Buy Box?

METHOD - 1

1. Head to Seller Central and log in to your account.

2. Inventory Tab > Manage Inventory

3. Select “Preferences” Tab

4. Go to Column Display Section

5. Tick on the Buy Box Eligible tab.

6. Save changes and head back to the Manage Inventory Page

7. Under Column Buy Box Eligible if you see YES - you’re eligible for that particular SKU!

METHOD - 2

1. Head to Seller Central and log in to your account.

2. Go to the Search bar at the top right of the page

3. Type Buy Box and search

4. The help window opens up

5. Immediately, a tool pops up that allows you to check any ASIN’s eligibility.

How Do I Become Buy Box Eligible?

To be eligible for Buy Box, here’s what you need:

1. Subscription-based professional selling account

2. Account health must remain in good standing

3. Sell new items

4. Ensure all-time stock availability

5. Have a history of successful sales on Amazon

10 Ways To Win Buy Box

#1 FULFILLMENT METHOD

The most important element considered for Amazon buy box is how the seller ships his item. Fulfillment can be done in 3 ways:

• FBA - Fulfilled by Amazon

• FBM - Fulfilled by Merchant

• SFP - Seller Fulfilled Prime

Since Amazon considers its fulfillment service to have perfect metrics, using FBA is the easiest way to increase the chances of winning a buy box.

#2 LANDED PRICE

There are 2 prices on Amazon:

• Product Price - the price you list an item with.

• Landed Price - product price + shipping cost & VAT (only in UK & EU)

Many people consider only this variable for winning the buy box, don’t be fooled! Competitive pricing is just a step to winning the buy box. Make sure your pricing including delivery charges should be in one of the lowest offers. Having said that, offering lower prices will increase the probability of winning a share of the buy box.

#3 SHIPPING TIME (For FBM sellers ONLY)

One of the simplest factors considered is the time a seller takes to ship an item. If you don’t use FBA, then shipping time has a high impact on winning the buy box. For time-critical items, shipping time varies, generally, Amazon weighs shipping based on the following brackets: *includes only working days

0 - 2 days

3 - 7 days

8 - 13 days

14+ days

It’s a no-brainer; the faster you ship, the higher are the chances of winning the buy box. That being said, don’t make fake promises, if your actual shipping time is longer than stated on the detail page, it will affect your performance metrics and that will impact buy box share.

#4 PRIME SELLER

Seller Fulfilled Prime is the program that allows you to deliver directly to Prime customers from your own warehouse. Being an SPN, you are committed to fulfilling orders with a 2-day delivery frame at no additional cost for Amazon Prime customers. A Non-SPN can qualify to win the buy box, but Amazon prioritizes one with a Prime badge, and why not? Amazon is always headed to premium customer experience.

#5 STOCK AVAILABILITY

As we said before, Amazon is headed to provide a top-tier customer experience. Amazon wants its shoppers to find what they are looking for; if you don't have any stock left, Amazon will rotate the buy box to another seller. If you have 1 unit left, and another merchant has 50 units, he will take over the buy box, because he has more products to offer. The more you maintain stock availability the more likely you can influence winning the buy box.

#6 ORDER DEFECT RATE

Amazon defines ODR as the percentage of orders that have received negative feedback, A-to-Z guarantee claims, or service credit card chargeback. If your Order Defect Rate is equal to or higher than 1%, the chances of winning a buy box may hurt.

#7 POSITIVE SELLER FEEDBACK

Many merchants and Amazon Marketing Consultants don’t realize that seller feedback is far different than product reviews. Higher seller feedback can be a step up towards winning the buy box. If you opt for FBA, and a shopper leaves a negative seller rating then in that case Amazon is held responsible and you can always create a case and get it removed.

#8 FEEDBACK SCORE

Customer feedback is the most important as that is based on the product and overall service, it’s simple the higher the feedback score, the more likely you are to be a buy box winner. You can offer a higher price if your feedback rating is higher than your competitors, and still be in the lead of winning a buy box.

#9 CUSTOMER RESPONSE TIME

Amazon’s Service Level Agreement needs sellers to respond to customer questions/messages within 24 hours. A delayed reply or no reply at all can harm the chances of you winning a buy box. It is considered that responding to customers’ queries within 12 hours can increase the chances of winning a buy box. If 10 or more than 10% of messages were replied to as late as 24 hours or worse never replied to can have an adverse effect on ratings. If you find yourself too busy to reply to messages daily, consider hiring an Amazon SEO Consultant.

#10 OTHER METRICS

Fulfilling your order? Probably, this is probably the most important section for you. Amazon favors reliable sellers - they’re more likely to sell high-quality products and offer premium customer service and fast delivery. There are more metrics to these.

• Return Dissatisfaction Rate: Measures customer satisfaction on how customers' returns are processed. Your target should be to keep it lower than <10%; the lesser the return dissatisfaction rate, the higher your chances of getting the buy box in your hands.

• Recent Customer Metrics Data: This metrics data ensures that third-party sellers are offering the same level of service as Amazon. It includes a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate that should be lower than 2.5%; a late shipment rate that should not be higher than 4% and a refund rate.

• Valid Tracking Rate: Recently introduced metrics for all sellers. This represents how often you use valid tracking numbers on orders. This is considered based on the last seven and 30 days. To increase your chances of getting a buy box, you must provide valid tracking details for at least 95% on all orders.

• Cancellation and refund rate: Calculated based on the last 7 and 30 days, your cancellation rate is represented as a percentage of seller canceled orders. The lesser the cancellation and refund rate, the higher the chances of you winning a buy box.

The Suppressed Buy Box

A suppressed buy box is the one in which instead of seeing “Add to Cart” or “Add to Basket”, you will find “See All Buying Options”. When a user clicks on this button, they will be directed to another webpage that will have the information of the sellers selling that product with the prices.

Buy Box Myths

1. AMAZON ALWAYS HAS THE BUY BOX

Although Amazon has the buy box often, and Amazon is indeed hard to beat; if you have great metrics and offer very low prices, it is possible!

2. THE SELLER OFFERING THE LOWEST PRICE WINS THE BUY BOX

Price does matter the most, but that’s not the only factor considered, there are many other elements too, for example - fulfillment method, performance metrics, and more.

3. YOU CAN TURN ON THE BUY BOX ELIGIBILITY

No, only Amazon decides if you’re eligible for the buy box.

4. OTHER SELLERS CAN NOT WIN THE BUY BOX

You cannot have the buy box at all times, other merchants can jump in anytime.

How To Calculate Buy Box Percentage?

Buy box percentage is the metric that tells you how often your product shows up in the Amazon buy box. If a product is viewed 100 times and you are in the Buy Box for 75 of those, then your Buy Box Percentage is 75%

How Can I Track My Buy Box?

Let’s assume that you got your product in the buy box, how do you track it and maintain it? Other sellers can jump in anytime and you may lose the buy box, so it is very important to know how you can hold this magical box too tight to let it go! Thankfully, Amazon gives you some ways to automate the process to ensure that you don't let the buy box slip off.

Amazon’s “Automate Pricing Tool”

This automated pricing tool reprices your product automatically when it differs from the current buy box price. To activate this tool, log in to your account in Seller Central> Pricing > Automate Pricing. Now, you can either choose a Pre-Defined Automated Pricing rule or Create your own Pricing Rule.

There are 4 types of pricing rules you can choose from.

1. Competitive Buy Box

• This rule changes the price of your offer automatically in relation to the buy box price. This is useful when there are multiple sellers on the same product listing.

2. Competitive Lowest Price

• This rule works exactly like the above one, but instead of setting it to near buy box price, it sets your price to the lowest price available on Amazon for that particular product.

3. Competitive External Price

• This rule is based on offers that Amazon finds on your product on other external websites. However, you may lose the buy box, if your price is a lot higher than the current buy box price.

4. Based on sales units

• With this rule, you can have automatic pricing occur based on how that particular product is performing. You can select if sales are below A units then reduce the price by B amount. This is useful when you are performing liquidating or short-term promotions.

Conclusion

Now that you know what Amazon expects out from buy box winners, here’s what to do next. The top sellers always work with data, guesswork can be dangerous at any level; with intelligence on the pricing movement of other sellers, keeping up to the standard of factors can increase your chances of winning a buy box.

As shoppers increasingly gravitate towards the smartphone shopping experience, you must keep on winning that magical yellow button.

Remember, eStore Factory is the epitome of highly experienced Amazon Consultants who can help you stay one step ahead of your competition in this race. Contact us today and never miss your hands on the buy box.